This cache has the makings of a history story. I don't have as much details as some of the other caches I hid for this years CCGT trail.....yet. It is a short walk but take care to treat yourself for ticks.
Please hide as well or better than found. This cache has a history of disappearing every year or so.
Good news! For 2018, we upgraded our geotrail to an official Geocaching GeoTour! Learn more about Pennsylvania's Clearfield County GeoTour, which offers a series of 5 related geocaching adventures: Forgotten Clearfield, Hometown Heroes, Waterways, Cemeteries, and Parks and Recreation. Codes are hidden within each cache. Collect 25 codes from across all 5 series and you qualify for a collectible prize. If you complete all 5 and have your passport validated, you can receive a trackable geocoin.
This cache is located on the Clearfield Industrial Park. When I started working in this park sometimes I would take walks on my lunch hour. One day I came across this odd stone structure. The industrial park property was formally a farm that happened to be owned by the family of former co-workers who grew up there. So I asked him what the structure was. He stated that running under the property and the VFW Picnic grounds is the active Fulton railroad tunnel. He said that the structure is an air vent for the tunnel.
Well,,,, I figured he knew what he was talking about and that this would be a great place to hide a geocache for the 2015 CCGT. So I prepared a container, headedt out and made the hide, and prepared to build the cache on the computer. Then last week I went to local Boy Scout meeting and noticed one of the fathers with his son's Eagle Scout Project work book. I asked him what his son was going to do for his project. Well this gentleman works at the railroad yard for the railroad that owns this tunnel. He showed me a picture of this structure that has partially collapsed that his son, with the help of other scouts in the troop, is going to repair. You guessed it....the air vent! When I said that I had just hid a geocache at this air vent he smiled and said it isn't an air vent. Boy was my information wrong!
So here's the short verson of this of what this structure is, but first a little history of the tunnel. The building of the Fulton Tunnel was begun in 1897. They began by digging a shaft straight down at the haflway point of the tunnel. From there four work crews began. There were two crews, one each which worked from the tunnel ends toward the middle of the tunnel. Two other crews went down the shaft at the center and one crew each started digging toward the ends. The railroad employee said that he has walked this tunnel many times and stated that it was built perfectly straight without a flaw. He stated the walls of the tunnel are not finished with stone or cement, and show no signs where the crews had to make corrections to straightened the path of tunnel like he has seen at other tunnels. This feat is a testiment to their workmanship.
Now for the structure. This tunnel according to the history that has been written about it, was completely built with the labor of african american workers. If a worker died during the building of the tunnel, whether by work related accident or illness, they were buried right there in an unmarked grave in the railroad right of way. So, when the the work on the tunnel was complete, the workers built the stone structure, which now sits all alone in the woods, forgotten, as a memorial to those who lost their lives in pursuit of a good job. Its a great tribute, and a great project for the young man who is making it his Eagle Project.
